A Moray teenager who endured a gruelling nine hour long liver transplant has been selected to take part in a major sporting event.
Millie Nicoll will take part in the British Transplant Games, which will be held from July 25 to July 28 in Newport this year.
Organised on behalf of the charity Transplant Sport UK, the games were created to raise awareness of organ donation.
Millie, 17, hopes she will help inspire and encourage young people to make a difference.
She said: “I thought that it was a really good opportunity for me to begin trying out some new sports that I wasn’t allowed to do a lot before my transplant.
“I also would like to meet some new people who have been through similar things to me.”
The Speyside High School pupil was born with Biliary Atresia, an illness which damages the liver by causing bile ducts in the organ to become blocked.
She needed a life-saving operation when she was just six-weeks-old, which was a temporary solution that would not stop her liver scarring as she grew older.
She was forced to give up horse riding, netball and tennis to avoid her organ rupturing.
The teenager was offered a place in the British Transplant Games last year but had to pull out due to her recovery from a gruelling nine hour long liver transplant at the end of 2017.
But now, the inspiring teen will be appearing in the tournament’s table tennis and shot put events, and has already put in hours of practice during PE lessons at school.
Millie also hopes that her appearance at the games will help other young people waiting for, or recovering from, a life-altering transplant.
She said: “For me waiting for a transplant was the worst part. It is the fear of the unknown.
“You don’t know when that call is coming or even if it will ever come.
“It can be really scary but my advice to someone waiting for a transplant would be to not give up hope even when you feel that there is no hope left.
“And my advice to anyone going through recovery would be brave and fight through it because you have been given a second chance and you have a whole new life ahead of you, you just have to work hard to get there but it will be so worth it in the end.”
To donate to Millie’s personal fundraising drive for Transplant Sport UK, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/millie-nicoll
